The Smell of Little Pong

Chicken Pox

Yesterday I had a text message from my friend to tell me that her daughter has chicken pox. This is the friend who I shared a car with to the one o'clock club on Thursday. Her daughter had come out on spots on Saturday meaning that she will have been contagious on Thursday, when her and Freyja sat next to each other in the car, giggling and laughing and playing peekaboo around their car seats.

I have had it, so no need to worry about that side of things, but I've been trying to find out what the risks are to the baby after it's been born. It's not good for a very young baby to get chicken pox and I wanted to know if there was a big risk or a small risk of the baby catching it - I didn't need anyone to commit to saying 'your baby will not get chicken pox' I just wanted an idea of the likelihood so that I could then make my decision about what I thought was best.

First I looked on the internet and advice varied from keep them apart (how?) to the baby will have partial immunity for 7 days to the baby will have full immunity for 6 months.

Then I called a midwife at the hospital. She hedged her bets, and told me to keep an eye out in case I developed a rash and that the baby would have some immunity but I should still try and keep the baby and Freyja apart during the incubation period (that's up to 3 weeks...).

I then consulted my wonderbook - Dr Yehudi Gordon's 'Birth and Beyond', which I bought after having Freyja. It is one of the best parenting books I have because it is very non-judgemental and just gives sound advice. Dr Gordon reckoned the baby would have passive immunity (that's antibodies passed from the mother to the baby) for about 6 months. This made sense to me, having been through a measles scare when Freyja was 6 months. I was told then that had she been exposed to it a few months earlier she would have been protected through my immunity but that at 6 months they couldn't be certain she was still protected and needed to be immunised as a precaution.

And finally today I got some sound advice from a GP who called me back and told me that the chances of the baby getting chicken pox if I am immune is minimal. She said it is quite likely that Freyja will get it and to just not let her cuddle the baby if she develops weeping blisters, but other than that to carry on as normal while keeping a little eye on things. Hurrah!

It's not great timing, particularly if Freyja does get ill, and I am sad that she won't be able to visit me at the hospital (I wouldn't risk her passing it onto other newborns who may not be immune), but at least I don't have to quarantine her just when her whole little world is about to be turned upside down....

posted by solveig @ 11:04 AM